Claims extracted
24
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
17%
4 of 24 hedged
("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
66/100
The Straits Times's corrections and
hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
3
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Hackers target US FEC system, disrupting campaign finance disclosures days before midterms
NEW YORK - The US Federal Election Commission’s website has been targeted by a hacker or hackers, according to an email seen by Reuters, disrupting the agency’s electronic filings system a week before the Nov 3 elections.
The cyberattack comes as so-called super political action committees (PACs) and dark money groups spend record sums in the final days of the races.
uncertain
committees → target → races
The elections will determine whether US President Donald Trump’s Republicans maintain their majorities in Congress for the next two years.
asserted
Republicans → determine → years
In a statement, the FEC said, “at this time, the FEC’s electronic filing system is currently offline and our IT staff are actively working to restore service”.
asserted
staff → say → service
The FEC, which tracks the spending of candidates and political committees, said users could still search the website for past reports.
uncertain
users → track → reports
It declined further comment on the outage.
asserted
It → decline → outage
The FEC does not play a role in administering US elections and the outage should have no effect on voters’ ability to cast ballots.
asserted
outage → play → ballots
The outage prevents organisations from filing the FEC’s 24-hour and 48-hour spending reports, which show how much political groups and others are spending on specific races.
asserted
groups → prevent → races
“I’ve never seen this in 26 years,” said Steven Mele, president and CEO at political finance compliance firm MBA Consulting Group.
asserted
Mele → see → Group
“The result is there will be less disclosure on the elections” until it is fixed.
asserted
it → fix → elections
A status message posted by the FEC said its filing system had been down since around 10pm local time on Oct 26 (10am Singapore time on Oct 27).
asserted
system → post → Oct
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency referred questions to the FEC.
asserted
Agency → refer → FEC
The FBI did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
asserted
FBI → return → comment
The FEC posted the notice after campaign finance officers could not file mandatory reports late on Oct 26.
uncertain
officers → post → Oct
“We have a bad actor attempting to breach FEC systems.
asserted
We → have → systems
As a result, we’ve had to temporarily shut down our web facing services,” an FEC electronic filings officer said in the e-mail to several campaign compliance firms that night.
asserted
officer → have → firms
The midterms are now the most expensive US election in history with roughly US$11.21 billion (S$14.4 billion) spent on advertising and future reservations so far, according to political ad tracker AdImpact.
uncertain
midterms → spend → AdImpact
It has surpassed the previous record set in the 2024 elections when US$11.2 billion was spent on all races, including US$3.2 billion on the presidential race between Trump and former Vice-President Kamala Harris, AdImpact said.
asserted
AdImpact → surpass → Trump
Much of the spending is being driven by super PACs, which can accept unlimited amounts of money from wealthy individuals and corporations and spend as much as they want on campaigns with few restrictions.
asserted
they → drive → restrictions
The sums being spent in recent weeks are staggering as Democrats gain ground in several Republican strongholds.
asserted
Democrats → spend → strongholds
Super PACs and dark money groups have spent an average of over US$50 million per day over the last week, said Brendan Glavin, research director at nonpartisan campaign watchdog group OpenSecrets.
asserted
Glavin → spend → OpenSecrets
More than US$250 million in spending was reported on Oct 20 alone, he added.
asserted
he → report → Oct
“It’s a big deal,” he said of the outage, which leaves voters in the dark until the filing system is back online.
asserted
system → ’ → dark
“These are the key reports that tell us what is happening,” Glavin said.
asserted
Glavin → tell → us
“In the last days of the election this is the only way for us to keep track of where the money’s being spent” and who’s spending it.
asserted
who → keep → it
The Aporia
